The perfumer’s trained nose could pick up a faint scent in the glass bowls, and declared acuta’s smell to be “quite sophisticated,” Simun said. It contained musk, green, and floral elements, as well as a sweet, almost tropical note at the end. Working with the perfumer, Simun split the scent into two elements—a fragrance, to be delivered to the nostrils using her smell headset, and a flavor, to be consumed as a cocktail. Together, she hoped, the two would mingle in a participant’s olfactory system to create a fleeting perception of Agalinis acuta’s scent as never before experienced by humans.

— Artist Miriam Simun gets help from IFF to capture the scent of an almost-extinct flower. Read more at Agalinis Acuta, Phantom Flower at The New Yorker.